Little Falls transcript., 1887-02-25

had done this fifty times before. and
| had come out all right. TO be sure
that no mistake had teen made, he
climbed up to the wheel-house, and
| quietly asked the man at the whe e
how he got his range. He answered
promptly and satisfactorily. Every.
thing was according to orders. So
Dunham cursed his nervousness, and
walked back to the smoke-stack.
The wind had gone down with the
sun, but heavy sea was running, and
1t was as dark as Tartarus, Dunham
paced the deck for halt an hour. then
went below to get his cloak. Beins
chilly, he went up to the hurricane
deck, and sat with his back to the
smole-stack. Being nervous, he lit a
cigar. Being careful, he walked for
ward to see how things were moving
He thought he heard q distant roar,
He listened, and could hear nothing
He walked back to the smoke-stack
In ten minutes he came forward again
He thought he heard the roar of the
| surf. He called to the man at the
! wheel:
"Abbott''
SAY, ay, sir"
Chow does she stand?"
"Sou' by east, SIR
That was all right; that was the
course Dunham had put her on.
He went to the paddle-box and sig.
nailed the engine to stop. Then he called
a man and had the lead thrown,
'Twenty-four. Plenty OF water" Dun.
! ham thought, and started the engine.
He thenwent to the captain s cabin and
knocked. The captain did not hear
the first time, but he knocked again.
"Who's there?'
'"The mate"
The captain opened g. port near the
head OF his berth, and asked him what
the matter was. Dunham reported.
The captain told him it was all right;
that 1t was foggy, and the roar OF the
surt with such a sea on and no wind
could be heard ten miles. Dunham
rather thought SO, too, and went
away. During this parley, and while
the mate stopped few minutes to
look after things below, the ship had
| made more than two miles headwav.
BY the time Dunham got on deck
again the roar OF the surf was fright.
fuI. He fairly screamed at the helms.
man:
"Abbott!"
SAY, ay, sir"
"How's her head?"
"Sou' by east, sir"
Amazing! Dunham ran to the pad
dle-box and jerked a signal. The en-.
CINE stopped. Then he rushed to the
captains door and called him out in
the name OF the gods. Both flew on
deck. There was no mistake about
it; there were the breakers not half
mile ahead, judging by the sound.
Dunham had almost run the ships
head on the shore, and that, too,
when she was holding precisely the
same course by compass that he had
put her on fifty times before.
The captain roared: "What's her
course?
"Sou' by east, SIR
"Put her SOU west"
"Sou' west, sir echoed the man at
the wheel, and the wheel spun round
and the chains ratified. The captain
rushed to the signal-bell and started
the engine, and got the ship under
good steering headway. Scarcely had
she started on her new course when q
scraping sound was heard and felt
then bump, bump, bump, as though
the ship had been lifted up aud set
down hard three times; then a crash
and a sudden stop that sent the cap
tain and mate on their faces, and
brought the smoke-stacks crashing
through the. decks, and snapped of
the topmasts like pjpe-ste1ns. The
ship had struck q sunken rock, and
began to fill at once.
Who got to shore and how they
got to shore, matters not. 1t is the
same old story. The news spread or
wings. Men came and dragged the
swollen corpses of their friends out oil
the surf, or dug them out of the sand,
OR Unidentified them in the shed, OF
paced the beach day after day, look
ing out at the remorseless sea that
sullenly cluig to its dead.
The captain and the wheelman, Ab
bots, went to Portland together
Dunham they never found-and there
they talked over the strange affai,
and exhausted all their ingenuity in
vain to account for the loss of the shir
when on the right course ON a still
night. When the wrecking-tug was
ready, they went out to the wreck. II
still hung on the rocks. The bows
were high out of the water. The two
men climbed up into the wheel-house
They unscrewed the compass-box from
its fastenings and bronght it on shore
There they opened it, and lifted up the
card and needle, and there lay the lit
tie instrument of death-a broken
blade.
The handle and the rest of the blade
were in LITTLE Joey Dunham's pocket.
He had tried to pry out the glass, tc
see what made the card swing around
so when he held his knife by it, ana in
doing so had broken the blade. HI
concealed his mischief and stole away